Helena of Egypt, whose story looks mighty familiar

Roughly a year ago, I wrote a post about Tamaris, a woman in the fifth century BCE who was the daughter of a painter and an acclaimed artist in her own right. Recently I learned of a similar story, courtesy of novelist Joanne Harris, who is running occasional posts titled “Women You Deserve to Know”…

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What’s Up, Doc?

It’s a tradition here at History in the Margins that I kick off the year with a post about what I expect to work on and think about over the coming year. I’ve always thought of it as the blog equivalent of the coming attractions at a movie theater—minus the popcorn. (I realize this is…

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From the Archives: More About Salt

Speaking of salt, as I believe we were: Anyone who sat through a third grade social studies lesson learned that Europe’s search for pepper changed the world. Prince Henry the Navigator, Columbus, and all that. But did you know that salt played an even bigger role in world history? Unlike pepper, we can’t live without…

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